EBay’s board of directors has approved a plan to separate the company’s eBay and PayPal businesses into independent publicly traded companies next year.

Creating two stand-alone businesses best positions eBay and PayPal to capitalize on their respective growth opportunities in the rapidly changing global commerce and payments landscape, eBay said in a statement Tuesday.

The split is expected to be completed as a tax-free spinoff in the second half of next year, with American Express executive Dan Schulman as CEO. Meanwhile, Schulman will serve as president of PayPal. He had been president of the American Express Enterprise Growth Group.